


all of your love is sunlight

by orphan_account



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, F/M, Fluff without Plot, Not Beta Read, Post-4x08, Pre-Relationship, Season/Series 04, Self-Indulgent, You've been warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 11:42:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18120125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Penny uses his Traveling ability to make Julia smile, make her forget about all the problems they are drowning in, just for a little while.





	all of your love is sunlight

**Author's Note:**

> title from sunlight by hozier

"You ever watch the sunrise while sitting on Laguna Beach?" Penny asks from the other end of the couch.

It's nearing dawn, and everybody else is asleep, or away, apart from Julia and Penny, who are facing the vast windows of Marina's formerly apartment. It's still pitch black outside.

Ever since they got back from Fillory this has become their routine, a practiced ritual only the two of them are privy to. Since the anointment ceremony they have glided into different levels of comfort—something like companionship. There's something about Penny that makes her feel at ease; safe, even though she's an indestructible goddess, so when he finds her one very early morning on the couch watching the first ribbons of sunlight filter into the apartment, he joins her silently, and she doesn't ask him to leave her alone. And from then on, he does it again, and again, which is most days, because Julia hardly sleeps these days.

(Kady's absent most of the time, dealing with Hedge Witch business, and Quentin is either sleeping, or napping, or avoiding life—whatever you want to call it—and Margo, well, she hasn't seen her in a long while. But it's not like they are close anyway.)

The corners of her mouth quirk up. "I'm from New York. Born and raised. What do you think?" she says. Even though Julia hails from a well-off family with the means to travel anywhere she wants to at the drop of a hat, she has hardly ever left the familiar cocoon that is New York.

A wistful sort of expression washes over Penny's face. "After I finished high school, I took a road trip. All the way from Florida to California. I wanted—had to get away for awhile. Part of me felt like I could outrun the voices that way. Didn't work, obviously. But i got to sit on a lot of pretty beaches."

Julia chuckles at that. "And you did all of that on your own? Without a road trip buddy?"

He cocks his expressive eyebrows at her. "Do I strike you as a _road trip buddy_ kind of guy?"

"Point taken."

Comfortable silence stretches between them. A clock faintly ticks in the background, the sound of a crow cawing resonates in the distance.

Julia feels the couch shift and Penny moving closer, but still keeping an ideal distance between them. He knows her limits, and he respects them. It's something that endears him to her more than she is willing to publicly voice.

He clears his throat. "I could take you, you know. If you want to."

Julia turns her head to look at him, forehead creased. "You mean take me to—to Laguna Beach?" She sounds incredulous. Sure, he's a Traveler, she knows he's one, but a sudden impromptu trip to California in the middle of the night is not an idea she has ever entertained in her life.

His eyes are glittering with sincerity. "Yes. We could watch the sunrise together."

The notion almost seems romantic, like something out of a formulaic movie, but she knows his proposition is not about making a move on her, or making her fall in love with him; it's about lifting her spirits, giving her momentary respite, a moment in time that isn't marred or consumed by darkness. She can see it in his eyes, his true and pure intentions.

Maybe that's why she says yes. And just so she can cross off an item that was never on her bucket list to begin with.

She proffers her hand with a smile, and he takes her hand in his, holding it softly. They both close their eyes at the same time, and then he transports them to the other side of the country in an instant. Much more efficient than a plane, certainly.

They stay like that for a beat longer than necessary, standing on the beach with their hands entwined, until they slowly unravel.

Julia basically whirls on the spot, trying to take the view in at once, memorize it—she doesn't know for how long she will have to hold onto this memory until a new pleasant one comes along—inhaling the intoxicating smell of the ocean. The wind whips her hair across her face, and she lets out a rare carefree laugh. Penny's watching her in a way that makes her feel warm the way sunlight does.

"You're happy," he says, and the simplicity of his statement uncoils something inside of her.

"Yeah," she replies plainly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, avoiding his gaze.

He plops down on the cool sand, and she follows suit, sitting down next to him. Like back home, they sit there for a while with nothing but comfortable silence between them, staring out at the ocean, with its ebbing and flowing waves, and the dark sky that is gradually dispersing into hues of pink, orange and blue.

Absentmindedly, Julia sifts sand through her fingers and lets out a relaxed exhale.

"Thank you," she says without looking away from the ocean.

"No need to thank me."

He says it so casually, like he simply picked up her groceries, or helped her find a book in the library. But what he did is so much bigger than that, carries so much more meaning than that.

(One day she's going to repay him for his kindness.)


End file.
